22 March 2011
Gary Ross has rejoined Capita Symonds as Associate Director
to drive the company’s UK wide BIM (Building Information Modelling)
programme.
He originally joined Capita Symonds as a
trainee mechanical engineer back in 1989, and now finds himself
back with the company some 22 years on.
Gary joins the company from Autodesk, the
manufacturers of design software such as AutoCAD, Revit and
Navisworks, where he was a customer focussed MEP (mechanical,
electrical and plumbing) engineer working in the Revit and AutoCAD
MEP development team.
Prior to his time at Autodesk, Gary had a
number of lead CAD roles at various multidisciplinary
consultancies.
...To an engineer, BIM is models and schedules, to an owner, BIM is operating and maintenance data, to the public it’s a clear illustration of the project that they can understand from a lay-persons point of view...
Of BIM Gary says: “It’s a process as well as a
product, a change in thinking. To truly appreciate BIM, you have to
be involved in it. End users and owners will see benefits of
course, but some benefits are reserved for the designers
themselves. BIM can be achieved on paper, the software just makes
it easier to organise. BIM is simply a collection of data, with
everyone involved being able to get access to relevant data
quickly. To an engineer, BIM is models and schedules, to an owner,
BIM is operating and maintenance data, to the public it’s a clear
illustration of the project that they can understand from a
lay-persons point of view.
As an example, if I had to explain a project
to three people: an engineer, an interior designer and my Aunt
Nora, I would say three distinctly different things to each, to
give them enough of an idea of the project, but rationalised to
their point of view and level of interest. BIM is all about
collaboration and data exchange – what data is exchanged with who,
and how that is done efficiently is the beauty of BIM done
well.
Most projects using BIM will see design cost
savings of up to 30% over traditional working methods. If you just
take clash detection alone, each clash can reportedly cost in the
region of £3000 to fix on site. Add to that softer savings such as
improved Health and Safety, less waste and lower energy use and BIM
becomes something you simply can’t ignore in the current climate.
Construction projects produce 30% of our UK waste, which is huge.
By taking a smarter approach to project design we can reduce that,
and the benefits of that are clear to all.”